In this book Fromm set out to identify 'what man is, how he ought to live, and how the tremendous energies within man can be released and used productively.' It makes for exciting, illuminating, even life-changing reading.

Erich Fromm fought long and hard for the rights and freedoms of the individual. He also recognized that fundamental to this pursuit is the promotion of self-knowledge. In encouraging people to analyse their own behaviour, Fromm identified the crucial link between psychology and ethics that underpins all our actions. Moreover, he saw in this a way out of the meaningless impasse which he regarded as the plight of the modern human race. The task that Fromm sets himself, therefore, in "Man for Himself" is no less than to identify "what man is, how he ought to live and how the tremendous energies within man can be released and used productively".